Mum of baby with Down's syndrome suing government over abortion law

[SharonasCorona]

The mother of a baby with Down's syndrome is suing the government for allowing disabled children to be aborted after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

After 24 weeks a woman can have an abortion if she is at risk of grave physical and mental injury, or there is a severe foetal abnormality, including Down's syndrome.

Maire Lea-Wilson says she was encouraged in hospital to abort her son, who is now 11 months old. She felt the assumption was "that you would want to abort a child with Down's syndrome".

I’m in pro-choice, but I didn’t realise you could abort disabled children until birth. It’s shocking that a woman with a healthy baby with Down’s Syndrome was encouraged to have an abortion, right up until she carried the baby full term.

I fully support a woman’s right to choose. It’s sad she wants to take that Away from other women. If she wants to decrease abortion rates for downs babies she could offer support for women with down babies. Ultimately tho, women should be able to freely choose what she wants to do with her body.

She may have had a bad experience, or she may have been in a stressful situation and projected the idea that she was encouraged. I’ve got massive doubts about how intense this pressure really was but either way, I find it infuriating. How dare this woman try to take choices away from other women?

@AlwaysAnEmptySpace Why, because I speak science, truth and reality? I'm not the one who should be ashamed.

She wants forced birth?

I see nothing vile in the suggestion that science being able to correct or eradicate genetic defects is a good thing?

Timekeeper1

Truth and reality? It’s your opinion not fact. Your opinion is extreme. I’ve no interest in debating this any further with you as no good will come of it.

There is another thread about this, I’ll repeat what I said.

My cousin has downs, doesn’t talk, no communication, life is hard! When his parents can no longer look after him he will have to go in a home. How traumatic is this going to be for all involved. Then when they are no longer around who will be there for him then?

Stupid, idiotic woman trying to deny others their legal right because she can deal with her child’s disability. Not everyone can.

I see nothing vile in the suggestion that science being able to correct or eradicate genetic defects is a good thing?

Then we disagree. 🤷🏻‍♀️

1 person's subtle pressure is another person's information giving.

^this

It is the mothers choice. For a wonderfully healthy DS child there are ones with autism/adhd etc. Friends child needs severe special school with 2-1 care for her son and he is only 8. She cant manage him alone so husband went pt then gave up work too. He sleeps little. The only break they get is respite. She loves him but he has put her on her knees

Science isn't the same thing as causing death. I see something very sinister in conflating the two.

@AlwaysAnEmptySpace I don't see how wanting to prevent illnesses and disabilities is extreme. Indeed, I think your position is very extreme and unhinged. Luckily many people don't agree with you. I think not wanting to eradicate genetic defects is rather sick. I suspect you're an anti-vaxxer too who thinks polio should never have been eradicated either.

I honestly have never come across anyone who thinks not eradicating disease and disability is a 'good' thing. Very bizarre.

time Hitler would have agreed. How could it possibly be wrong.

@SharonasCorona - despite you saying it over and over again, I do not believe you are truly pro-choice. I believe you to be “pro-choice” only when the woman’s circumstance fit with your moral outlook. That is not pro-choice.

Also you say A cynical part of me wonders if the NHS is trying to lessen impact on resources by effectively having no children with Down’s Syndrome in the country

I cannot believe anyone with more than one brain cell would believe this. There is no unrelenting pressure on women to abort at any point, not least until they are full term. It just doesn’t happen. My friend has a child with Edwards syndrome and not once was she encouraged to abort. She was told of her options and that support would be there whatever she chose. Another friend is x midwife who counsels women whose scans /bloods/amnio suggest or confirm an abnormality - to suggest she or her colleagues would encourage abortion is very insulting - even more so to say it’s to save resources. A big problem in the NHS (where I work) is that there is so much waste because staff generally don’t give a fuck about resources!

I find your post incredibly insulting.

SickOfLockdown Unfortunately there is someone who thinks suffering, disease and disabilities are a good thing.

Why is she suing?

For money.

Someone with Down’s Syndrome is not ‘perfectly healthy’.

I don’t believe her.

@0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h So now women who exercise their rights of body autonomy are Hitlers? FFS. I guess you will tell us next that Hitler would have supported vaccines.

There is nothing good about knowingly bringing a DS child out into the world, and those who knowingly do either after the test results, or those who do not have the testing done, should have to fully fund their choice for the child's full life, and not utilise any (already over-stretched) public disability or health care or benefits.

Abort or receive no help. Like I say, vile.

I suspect you're an anti-vaxxer too who thinks polio should never have been eradicated either.

Wrong. I have 2 fully vaccinated children.
Vaccinating is very different to saying every woman who chooses to not terminate a DS child in order to eradicate DS, should not receive any help or benefits from the state.

I very much doubt if this will ever go anywhere. I very much doubt that her medical notes will contain anything like "encouraged Mrs ... to abort her Down's child at 34 weeks". How on earth could she prove what happened ar what was said even to the standard of "on the balance of probabilities"

I doubt there will even be evidence led on her personal experience. This case isn’t about whether the law should change because she felt that her HCPs were too pushy in discussing her abortion rights. The case is about whether the current law on abortion is discriminatory towards disabled people. It’s totally irrelevant to the law that one person might have felt that she didn’t receive the support she needed when pregnant with a DS baby.

@timekeeper1 it’s made me really angry actually. Us as parents have to deal with our child’s disabilities but we don’t stop and think how it’s affecting our children due to our choices. A life of pain, suffering & confusion. I think some people need to ask themselves “would I want to live that life”

I honestly have never come across anyone who thinks not eradicating disease and disability is a 'good' thing.

If eradicating a disability involves trying to force women to abort children with DS by withdrawing benefits, then it’s not a good thing.

Abort or receive no help. Like I say, vile.

Hardly 'vile'. It's about taking responsibility. What type of person would knowingly bring a child with lifelong disabilities into the world - and all that encompasses? How is that morally right or responsible. I think if you deliberately choose that path, then you pay for it yourself. That is fair enough. I think the alternative, to may the whole of society pay for your choice, is vile.

People who don't want an abortion if their child is disabled don't have to have one, they however cannot dictate what other women choose to do.

I cannot see the law being changed and neither should it.

Just can’t cope with people who try to force their personal “moral” for want if a better word, beliefs on others.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, some unique.

If eradicating a disability involves trying to force women to abort children with DS by withdrawing benefits, then it’s not a good thing.

I guess we simply have different values. I believe in personal responsibility, and not taking the piss by utilising already over-stretched public resources. I guess if you don't care about the over-loaded disability and respite system, and think only of yourself, you will find it 'vile'. Where as others like me find the alternative vile. If this society didn't have the resources and help, where would parents who choose that life be? It doesn't bear thinking about. People take it for granted.

@Starksforthewin 'Someone with Down’s Syndrome is not ‘perfectly healthy’.

Unfortunately this is true, the two are mutually exclusive.